A sweet-yet-sharp apple is the proper accompaniment to wild sport, and has an analogous season from autumn to midwinter, when saved apples begin to fade and the capturing season ends. An outdated apple nonetheless makes nice cooking, although, and in as we speak’s recipe I saute them with thyme and butter, then spoon over creamy braised pheasant.
Like apples, pheasant is a humble ingredient that’s typically wasted. Savills’ 2018 Recreation Meat survey discovered that solely 48% of sport shot on shoots is taken by sport sellers, and instructed that a sustainable market must be created for this surplus meat. Recreation is nutritious and, from a superb butcher, cheap, too.
Pheasant Normandy with apples
This traditional French dish marries two humble and sometimes wasted substances in a harmonious stew. The wealthy, creamy sauce and umami-savoury meat are minimize and complemented by the candy, tart sauteed apples, which end the dish. A Countryside Alliance ballot discovered that 85% of shoppers had by no means purchased pheasant or partridge, however a excessive share have been up for making an attempt it, not least as a result of this sport meat is economical, nourishing and scrumptious. Each birds have a delicate flavour and make an excellent introduction to wild meat, although the dish can, after all, be made with rooster or different poultry, in the event you desire.
Cider brandy is a superb aperitif, and provides an actual depth of flavour to this dish, however it’s not at all a vital ingredient. For those who don’t fancy consuming cider brandy or calvados, and don’t need to purchase a bottle for this recipe alone, the cider alone will suffice; in any other case, deglaze the pan with one other spirit similar to brandy, whisky or vodka. (After I first made this, I didn’t have any cider brandy handy, so used whisky as an alternative, and it was scrumptious.)
I’d recommend serving this with mashed potatoes and/or crusty bread. If you wish to step your mash up a notch, boil some celeriac and/or jerusalem artichokes till comfortable, mix to a puree and stir into your mashed potatoes with loads of butter and seasoning.
Serves 2
For the inventory
1 tbsp olive oil
1 giant pheasant, jointed into 2 legs and two bone-in breasts, together with the giblets
1 onion, peeled and grated
1 carrot, grated
1 stick celery, grated
3 garlic cloves, peeled and grated
6 parsley stalks
3 bay leaves
1 tsp juniper berries
For the casserole
2 rashers smoked streaky bacon, minimize into lardons
3 shallots, peeled and halved
1 tbsp olive oil
½ tbsp dijon mustard
50ml cider brandy, or calvados or different spirit (eg, brandy, whisky, vodka)
500ml cider
250ml pheasant inventory (see above and technique), or rooster inventory
50ml double cream
20g butter
2 apples
6 sprigs thyme
To serve (non-compulsory)
Jerusalem artichoke and potato puree, or mashed potatoes, crusty bread, winter leaves
First make the inventory. Warmth the olive oil in a heavy-based saucepan over a medium warmth, then add the pheasant carcass, coronary heart, gizzards and some other offcuts, season effectively with salt and saute for quarter-hour, turning sometimes, till colored on all sides. Add water to cowl, convey as much as a simmer and scrape up any bits caught to the underside of the pan. At this level, when you have a gradual cooker, switch the pan’s contents to that and prepare dinner for 4 to eight hours on a low, trembling simmer; in any other case, simmer gently on the hob for at the least two hours, and 4 ideally.
Add the onion, carrot, celery, garlic, parsley stalks, bay leaves and the juniper berries, simmer for one more hour, then pressure by way of a cheesecloth or/and wonderful sieve and go away to chill. The inventory will now maintain, lined, within the fridge for as much as 5 days.
In a big casserole dish, saute the lardons and halved shallots on a medium warmth till browned throughout, then raise out and put to at least one facet. Add a tablespoon of olive oil and the pheasant legs and breasts, then brown on all sides. Add the cider brandy, deglaze the pan, then return the lardons and shallots to the pot with the mustard and cider. Convey as much as a simmer, prepare dinner for 3 minutes, then add the inventory. Convey again to a simmer, raise out the pheasant breasts, then cowl the pan and simmer the legs for an hour to 90 minutes, or till tender.
Elevate out the legs, flip up the warmth and scale back the liquid by half. Stir within the double cream, return all of the meat to the pan, return to a simmer and prepare dinner for 5 minutes. Take off the warmth, cowl and go away to relaxation.
In the meantime, soften the butter in a big frying pan over a medium warmth. Lower the apples into wedges (core them, too, in the event you desire), then saute with the thyme till golden brown. Scatter the apples and butter excessive of the pheasant and serve from the pot, with mash or puree, wilted greens and good crusty bread.
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